Julia Assante is an established social historian of the ancient Near East and for over three decades has also been an active professional intuitive and medium. She applies these methodologies to her investigation of near-death experiences, reincarnation, after-death communication, the death process, and possible explanations for what happens after we die.

In national surveys, between 42 and 72 percent of Americans report having had contact with the dead. It is remarkable that the majority of these people kept their communication with dead loved ones to themselves. Assante notes that talking with the dead is “one of the world’s best kept secrets.”

Although many psychologists, physicians, hospice workers, bereavement counselors, and others are trying to get people to face death and understand the world to come, progress is slowed by the fact that we live in a fear-based culture that is anxious about terrorism, economic peril, nuclear war, and natural disasters. No wonder death is seen as an enemy and the afterlife as a place of judgment and punishment!

Early Christian monks used to keep a skull in their rooms to remind them of the impermanence of life. According to Assante, we need to reframe our view of death and see it as another mysterious and jubilant adventure. We can also do much more to create meaning as we prepare to die and savor the first experiences on the other side.

With great elan and plenty of stories, the author writes about the benefits of after-death communications for the living. Assante also has some interesting things to say about telepathy, the key to successful contact, ghosts, and earth bound spirits.